Hello all, i thought I'd share my experiences and feelings as I set up my first 10g nano.

First of all, I have done alot of reasearch from the internet to make this setup as easy and cheapest for me.

So far, I have spent about 30 dollars on this whole setup and I'm very happy. Some of the items that are shown were also given to me by friends. i had to buy the substrate and the rocks and saltwater mix..

The tank is about 2 weeks old and i think i will let it cycle while i buy more gadgets for it :D

I did not take pictures of the actual painting process but it took about 30 minutes to dry and remember to use alot of masking tape or you will get little spray dots on your glass and it will be a pain to take off. I did about 4 coats and made sure no light was shining through it. I used a enamel blue paint used for model cars. I used this because i didnt want to go out and spend 5$ on a can of paint that I already have but if I did have to buy some, i would go with krylon paint.

Dont mind the gravel, I thought it would beneficial for some bacteria to grow on and coated it over with a layer of marine sand.. im still thinking whether if was a good decision, I might put some coral gravel on it soon..

That is about 15 lbs of dead rock and 1 little tiny piece for seeding the other ones.. I should ask my friend for some more soon.. I like the texture of those white rocks alot.. Do you guys think it looks natural? and I also know that those white rocks wont stay white for long.. so im ready for that haha

I will get some more recent pictures and will get some filters and DIY projects soon after i have time (school kills)

Thanks for looking!

Lupin

10-02-2006 10:45 PM

Tmfreak, I moved your thread to the proper section.

Nice tank.:thumbsup:

If you have DIY projects, pls post them in DIY section. Your presence in this forum will surely help the other members as well.:D
If you can make a DIY sump, pls do so as it's in demand nowadays.:D

Good luck with the marine fishkeeping.:)

tmfreak

10-04-2006 09:13 PM

ok, Thanks!

ill be sure to post any DIY projects I do soon

bettababy

10-20-2006 02:58 AM

Just a note about your choice in rock... the bigger pieces look like honeycomb rock. If they are, then it's not going to "seed" well because it is too dense. I would suggest white tufa rock or lava rock, base rock, and live rock all for better choices. Also, keep in mind it takes quite some time to seed rock, so expect the tank to be just rock for weeks before it will be considered "seeded" and safe to assume it will help with the bioload in the tank. In the nano tanks, fluctuations take place much faster and can be a lot more extreme, be careful and watch the water quality. Even a bit of evaporation will fluctuate a nano quickly. I've been keeping nano's for about 4 yrs now, and was in charge of the 10 gallon nano reef at work. They're awesome if you can keep up with them. I had to daily skim the water by hand with a piece of papertoweling to keep the organics from suffocating the tank, and water changes of about 10% every other day, lest something be unhappy and sickly.
Good Luck with it, if you do it right, they can be a lot of fun. I currently have a pair of seahorses in my 15 designer tank, with a redheaded goby and a yellow clown goby. I'm running a large aquaclear filter right now, and its growing caulerpa slowly, but steadily. I feed it twice/day with live brine or mysis shrimp, and I do water exchanges about once/month, topping off evaporation in between time. The secret to keeping it stable is the filter media I'm using. I have a lot of biomedia stuffed in there, along with a pouch of NitrateLock which gets recharged once/month. There are a few turbo snails, a few nassarius snails, and 2 small serpent starfish in there, with an emerald crab to be added in the next 2 wks. I took the corals out due to an aiptasia outbreak they introuduced to the tank... so no more corals for that one. I've also got 2 peppermint shrimp ordered, so those should arrive with the emerald crab. Aiptasia go bye bye, lol.
Keep us posted with the tank, I'd love to have another one set up now, but not until we move and get settled. <sigh> 30 tanks just isn't enough!!!!

usmc121581

10-20-2006 11:06 AM

I started out with live/base rock and the base rock seeded in about 6 months, but I think it would've been sooner if the hadn't taken my tank down 3x's in 4 months.

bettababy

10-20-2006 02:36 PM

My husband saw the picture of your tank and told me that many LFS's will sell the honeycomb rock as base rock, but it's too dense to seed. He suggested a rock called "reef bones" from CaribSea company. This is true base rock...
Let me take a guess, if you pick up those 2 rocks from your tank, they are quite heavy... whether honeycomb or not, it is apparent that the rocks in the photo (the 2 larger pieces) are quite dense. I wouldn't advise relying too heavily on biological filtration the way it sits now.

caferacermike

10-22-2006 07:23 PM

That there is what we here in TX call Texas Holey Rock. Honeycomb or lattice rock is also widely available but has a lot more tiny holes in it than that. We collect the stuff in our yards. TX used to be the bottom of an ocean. Your rock used to be the bottom of an ocean floor. Reefs are not made on the floor.

That holey rock is indeed to dense to of much help as live rock. I have a local LFS that stocks the stuff and has a 200g "reef" full of the stuff. Does not look natural nor does it add any benficial aspect to the tank as far as bio density. It does a great job of leeching minerals and stabilizing high PH. that's why cichlid guys love the stuff. It makes a nice cheap base rock if you had a huge tank and were still planning on covering it all with liverock.

I'm sorry man, I'm sure you only wanted the best for your nano. In a nano I wouldn't put anything other than genuine live rock as it's to small to support anything else. Also make sure to get "quality" rock. It should be lighter than it feels and have jillions of tiny pores all over it. Slick rock won't be of any good to you. Tonga branching rock, Fiji, Marshall Islands are all good rocks to work with.

I't also time to start saving up for some nice powerheads or a Seio M620 stream maker to get some current in that tank.